Mr Little, who founded Northill in 2010 with financial backing from the Switzerland-based Bertarelli family, acknowledged that it had been a "messy" few years for the Australian fund but said he believed he could make its clients happy.

"I have some degree of confidence that we can retain all or most of the clients," he told AFR Weekend.

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It is in danger of losing other clients like Sun Super and NSW State Super, while investors in the Utilities Trust of Australia (UTA) – which owns stakes in Melbourne, Perth and Cairns airports – are also unhappy with previously botched sales of Hastings over the past two years. Talks with Charter Hall collapsed in August.

'Ripe for redrawing terms'

Mr Little said he had met with some of Hastings' clients and would meet with more over the next week in Sydney and Melbourne.

"It's not unreasonable that there is investor unrest in some of the clients, particularly in the UTA fund, I think the TIF fund was a different situation, which was more about the specifics of that fund," he said.

"The UTA fund is probably a fund that is ripe for some redrawing of the terms, the way that the fund is structured, some of the technical aspects of it, and frankly also the pricing."

Mr Little argued that it was "really impossible" for Westpac to address clients' concerns while Hastings was going through a sale process.

"Once that uncertainty is out of the way, it's really our job to engage with the investors and make sure that they get a deal that they're happy with.

"We won't necessarily make every investor 100 per cent happy but I'm sure, frankly, looking at the issues and looking at where both sides are it should be reasonable that we can find something that will make investors comfortable that they've got the right terms, the right pricing and the right focus and attention."

Mr Little said that while the UTA fund had delivered a "very solid" performance, it may have been "too focused on bringing new assets into the fund rather than on maximising the opportunities for existing unit holders".

"I think we want to make sure that before we move forward and grow the UTA assets or even grow to a massive extent the Hastings assets, that we've got the unit holders happy that they're in a situation that they like."

Hastings to inject own capital

New Hastings CEO Terry Winder, who replaced Andrew Day on October 1, said that the investment group had "communicated very clearly" to Northill the changes UTA investors wanted.

"We've consulted quite broadly ... we're aware there is desire to improve some parts of Hastings."

Northill will invest its own capital in Hastings and plans to bring some of its team to Australia to work with the group over the next six months

Mr Little will take over temporarily as Hastings chairman from Brian Scullin after completing the takeover and will then look for a permanent chairman.

The new chairman would either be an Australian or someone with "extensive hands-on experience of the Australian market", Mr Little said.

Northill, which owns several asset management firms, has not previously owned a specialist infrastructure fund.

"We have a policy of not owning two of anything," Mr Little said. "Our view is that if we think we need to own another one of something, then we have bought the wrong business in the first place."

Despite Australia being a mature market for infrastructure, Mr Little said he believed that there would still be future investment opportunities, and that the fund would also continue to look at assets in the UK, Europe and "the big untapped market of the US".

"Depending on who you believe and whose time scale you are going to have in mind, there is going to be an enormous wave of potential infrastructure assets that will come to market [in the US]," he said.

In it for the long run

Mr Little stressed that Northill was a patient, long-term investor of capital. "Too much of the investment industry is focused around a one or two-year view and we think it's unhealthy," he said.

"In some of the press in Australia we've been described as a private equity house. I would say that we're as far away from a private equity house as it's possible to get."

The sale of Hastings is subject to due diligence and regulatory approvals.